Our nation, indeed our world has become much
polarized in the right/left spectrum. People now are categorized
in one camp or the other based on certain ideas. We live in a world
of sound bites.

For example, today, if you attack the irrationality
of the actions of the United Nations, you�re a �black helicopter
kook.� If you support the idea that government should stay out of
your bedroom you�re anarcho-lefty. There is confusion. The sound
bites and instant labeling boxes us in and keeps us apart. If the
shouting were to calm down, perhaps we might all find that the left
and the right have some very common ideas.

For example, recently I received an email
from a reader named Stuart, a Canadian. In his message Stuart said,
�I�m a lefty and often look around for what it is that makes conservatives
tick. So I�m no friend of yours, but on the ID cards I agree.�

Stuart went on to describe how ID cards (already
in place in Canada) may soon be used in that nation to create dossiers
on each citizen for the purpose of tracking consumer purchasing
in order to aid business marketing. �I mean,� Stuart asked, �how
na�ve could someone be to believe that it wouldn�t be a data snooper
bonanza?� And then he finished his note saying, �And you are absolutely
right. This would have zero effect on terrorist activities,� referring
to one of my articles on the subject.

Here is my response to Stuart, picking up
on his puzzlement of what actually makes conservatives �tick.� Stuart,
you may find that we actually have quite a bit in common. Keep in
mind that there are all kinds of conservatives just as there are
all kinds of liberals. We don�t all agree even if we fall into one
of those categories.

What makes conservatives tick is the desire
for freedom. We believe that granting government the power to control
any aspect of our lives, even a program that sounds worthwhile,
surrenders freedom because the government will always strive for
more control. Once the door is open there is no stopping it.

Stuart, your example of the intrusion of ID
cards for marketing purposes could never be done by a private business
without having the force of government behind it. In the world of
free markets, business would be controlled by the consumers. If
a business uses practices that are harmful to consumers or to the
communities in which they operate, then people have the power to
stop shopping there. The business then must either change its ways
or go out of business.

In the world of big government, businesses
care less about the customers and cater more to the hands that control
the power and public treasury. In that way, business can buy its
way into government protection and destroy its competition.

Today, through a program called Sustainable
Development, which creates partnerships between government and business,
certain selected companies are allowed on the inside of the power
bubble, while others are forced to exist outside.

The insiders get special privileges, using
the power of eminent domain, for example, to get prime land and
low rates to build their stores. They can control the market, not
with superior products or service, but with the money coerced from
taxpayers and all of the power provided by government, backed by
police forces, courts and jails.

However, as a society, we have accepted the
mantra that free markets are bad and must be controlled by government.
As a result, reason has been sacrificed for the drive for power.
Remember, only a very few can hold such power at the expense of
the rest of us. The adverse consequences of such power are wrongly
blamed on capitalism. Powerful companies that are backed by the
force of government, destroying competitors, are not practicing
capitalism. This is why conservatives stand in support of free enterprise
and in opposition to government being used in such a manner.

And such abuses of government power are not
just in the immediate market place. Today we are told that we must
accept the UN�s Kyoto Climate Change treaty even though most parties
involved agree that it will have no effect on climate change, but
will have a devastating effect on national economies, particularly
ours in the US.

The Kyoto treaty is really about creating
a new international economy in partnership with some selected big
businesses and undeveloped nations at the expense of others. Some
argue that such policy is fair and necessary for our protection.
Conservatives disagree with such policy.

Some argue that government power is the only
way to protect the environment. And so today we have the Endangered
Species Act that is so punitive to property owners, that any who
find themselves unfortunate to have an endangered species on their
land are forced to �shoot, shovel and shut up� in order to survive
sure destruction by the government if the species is discovered.

This does nothing to protect the species,
but to even discuss fixing such bad law is shouted down by the elite
who use the law to maintain their power base that has become more
important to them than the stated purpose of actually protecting
endangered species.

Though the sound bite kings would argue that
such policies are the fault of liberals, the fact is both political
parties are guilty. Both parties have accepted the premise that
it is proper government conduct to loot the public treasury as long
as it�s in the name of their favored program.

Conservatives argue that the only way to protect
the rights of citizens in this nation is through limited local government
that is held in check by the local electorate. The farther away
government gets from the people, the easier it becomes for government
to ignore their rights. Conservatives believe that limited, controlled
government is the only effective government.

Government, through unlimited taxation, is
empowered to control our private land; inject political propaganda
into our schools; control our medical system---forcing costs to
explode; track our every movement with national ID cards; dictate
our food choices in restaurants; control the rearing of our children;
and invade foreign nations without the approval of elected representatives.
With eyes glassed over from drunken power, government ignores reason
and it ignores liberty.

Conservative opposition to government spending
programs doesn�t stem from a lack of compassion for the unfortunate
as some claim. Rather, it�s because we have compassion that others
may live their lives as they choose and use their wealth in the
way they choose. In short, we believe in the power of free individuals
and fear unbridled power in the hands of others. That, Stuart, is
what makes us tick.

Tom DeWeese is the publisher/editor of The DeWeese
Report and president of the American Policy Center, an activist, grassroots
think tank headquartered in Warrenton, VA. The Center maintains an Internet
site at www.americanpolicy.org.

Government, through unlimited taxation,
is empowered to control our private land; inject political propaganda
into our schools; control our medical system---forcing costs to explode;
track our every movement with national ID cards; dictate our food choices
in restaurants; control the rearing of our children